Long Term Catheterization
This entry was posted on 4/21/2007 11:08 PM and is filed under Recovery.
On Tuesday I was excited. I was to get the catheter out. Now, it is not the act of taking it out that excited me. The nurse pulling it out was not the most pleasant of moments. It burned mostly for about two minutes.
My relief was short lived. The the doctor walked in and prepared to send the camera up the same place the catheter had just exited. I dreaded this moment but it had to be done. I winced when he pushed it in but it wasn’t unbearable.
Next came the bad news. As he pushed the camera in he had me look at the screen. My urethra lining has some real damage. He said that if we let it heal as is, the scaring tissue would probably close up the urethra completely. Not something I would want to happen. Dr. Uchida in Japan had told us that this happens to about 16% of the patients. I guess it was not my lucky day.
The cure - six weeks with a catheter in to prevent the urethra from closing up. Six weeks of walking gingerly, wearing loose pants, and peeing by lifting a pant leg.
I was deflated.
